Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Genestealer Cults Jackal Alphus

Product Information

The latter part used to be even more important, as some poor wording let you hold the deep strikers pulled with it past turn 3, but it’s still exceptional now that’s been fixed by a FAQ. Most GSC armies will contain several “bombs”, large deep striking units that often run to the 200-250pts range (usually Acolytes). You might not normally be able to get all of these plus their required support characters into deep strike under the “half your army limit”, but with this stratagem it’s trivial, and it’s very common to declare these units as setting up in Cult Ambush then move them underground. The only thing to be wary of with that is if your opponent has access to Vect or GSC’s own “counterspell” stratagem – in this case it is critical that you remember to put a Four-Armed Emperor unit down on the board prior to activating this stratagem, as that way you can counter their counter – getting this ability stopped if you’ve built your whole plan around it can easily lose you the game on the spot, with your fragile units ending up standing in the middle of nowhere looking awkward. Genestealer Cults are quite a different faction from most others in 40k. Generally Warhammer armies are massive forces of destruction, whether that’s the galaxy-spanning hammer of the Astra Militarum, the ever-travelling craftworlds of the Eldar, the ancient tomb-lords of the Necrons, or some other faction which turns up anywhere and everywhere. Genestealer Cults are a lot more personal; they’re not made up of super-soldiers or faceless killers, but instead of the men and women of a single world. They’re alien-infected, psychically controlled, and often monsters, but for 40k that still makes them average people, damnit. Army Strengths That’s…pretty hilarious. It’s fairly fringe and probably not the best thing you can be doing, but this book is so deep that stuff like this still catches you out. This list doesn’t really struggle with getting enough units on the board – the 4AE patrol plus the Kelermorph is 7 units (out of 19 total) and just under 800pts, letting you flex a couple of Neophyte units into reserve if needed. Genestealer Cults spent a good portion of 2019 as arguably the best army in the game, putting up top finishes everywhere and being the boogeyman used to scare new tournament players to sleep.

For each GSC detachment your army has, you can include up to one ASTRA MILITARUM detachment, ignoring the normal Battle Brothers rule for building a battle forged army. These have the following additional restrictions: Cult Ambush’s ability to be reactive in deployment is exceptionally good in the missions, allowing GSC to adapt to going first or second on the fly. Use Scanner Decoys a lot. Relic – Really Big Blessed Sledgehammer: A relic hammer for the Abominant without the -1 to hit and a bonus point of Ap. Fine, but you aren’t taking it over the real goods. C+ Scanner Decoys – 1CP: Put down up to three extra ambush markers. Not usually worth it in pure GSC, but gets a lot more value if you’re souping with Tyranids, bumping up the number of “spare” markers you can put down in matchups where you want them to screen. C in pure, B in soup.

Locus

This kit lets you build one Clamavus, and includes a choice of heads – one with goggles, one without. Perfect if you’re looking to put your personal stamp on the model, or want to include multiples in your army! If your army contains any Patriarchs, and a GSC character is your warlord, it has to be one of the Patriarchs. This is absolutely fine because this is pretty much always the right choice anyway – if a Patriarch is your warlord you can use the Broodcoven stratagem to hand a warlord trait to a Primus and a Magus as well. More warlord traits is good, and they don’t even have to be the same ! Specialist Detachments The Cult’s Psyche – 1CP: Once per game pre-game, upgrade a Magus. They get +1 power use per turn, and +1 to their casts for each friendly psyker within 3″. You’re mostly looking at the first part here, and that is basically good – Magi are unusual in being one-cast psykers that know two powers, so they get a benefit from this straight away, avoiding the need to buy a familiar and being more consistent throughout the game. The boost to casts almost never comes up – most lists are on one or zero magi, Patriarchs are generally elsewhere on the board, and they often aren’t the same . Still worth using pretty much every game if you’ve brought a Magus though, and makes them a more attractive choice. B+

The Locus gives his unit Fights First, and buffs other characters in his unit to have a 4+ FNP. I’m not sure how much this will help some of them as they are very squishy already, but the fight phase control is certainly nice. The Tectonic Fragdrill is designed to fit in with the range of Sector Mechanicus scenery, and boasts many of the same design features and components. The rails included with it are also compatible with the Galvanic Servohauler kit. Stratagem – Vengeance for the Martyred 1CP: Use this if an enemy unit destroys a PAUPER PRINCES CHARACTER from your army. Your PAUPER PRINCES units add one to hit rolls against it for the rest of the battle.With careful placement of markers, the ability to remove three of them can often feint you away from one flank or part of the board. If your opponent has concentrated their units in one place, it can deny them targets, especially if they have melee units patiently waiting 9″ away from markers. It lets you get around the tactical reserves limits. Units pulled by this aren’t counted towards that, so it allows you to end up with considerably more than half your models in deep strike. Finally, Neophytes. One extra point a model here is good too, though there are some side-grades in their equipment. All the special weapons, along with heavy stubbers get rounded up to 5pts, which is bad and probably means most of them aren’t worth it. However, the mining laser and seismic cannon both go down two points to 10, which is good. Realistically, the mining laser is still king here – take it and enjoy it. While you do thus end up with a slight downgrade in the output of the squads without the nearly-free webbers on top, that means 10-model units of these with lasers only climbs up to 80pts instead of 74pts, which is extremely below rate and means there probably is still an angle on Bladed Cog lists flooding parts of the board with them. Elites Please continue not to put the Tectonic Fragdrill in your lists. Didn’t even get any terrain traits added in the FAQ, shameful. Which, actually, raises a legitimate question as to whether a model can stand on it at all now? Does the “Sector Mechanicus Structure” rule do anything in 9th without traits? Interesting philosophical question, but not competitively relevant. At least the updated fortification network rules mean adding it to a more casual list is way more valid, because who doesn’t want to raise a claw to the sky while shouting “activate the drill”? List Building

Alien Majesty is a big winner of the “generic” ones, with Biomorph Adaptation also being a good choice. Beyond that, you’re generally better The psychic power is a powerful ability but it has a high WC and a hefty target restriction. It’s a good enough effect that you can’t write it off entirely, especially as you can get cast bonuses on a Patriarch, and against armies running INFANTRY hordes, or something like White Scars who depend on Advance manipulation to get their Centurions around, it could be worth a look. It could easily have been WC7 though, 8 was a bit mean. Excellent Character Support –the GSC character range is stunning, and every single one of these little guys now brings something extremely valuable to an attached unit. Tool up your hordes carefully to enact your schemes to the maximum. On almost every Industrial, Forge or Agri-world, Atalan-branded machines can be found -- much like the ubiquitous Lasgun, they are cheap to manufacture, highly durable and easy to repair. They have become well-respected workhorses across the industrialised elements of Mankind's realm, especially in fringe regions and Sectors Fronteris. A Magus is a vital psychic unit for your Genestealer Cults army. With one on your side, you’ll have access to a huge host of powerful abilities, allowing you to seize control of enemy units or drive your own to greater heights of carnage. Defensively, you’ll be able to shut down enemy psykers by providing nearby units with the ability to deny their powers.All units have the BROOD BROTHERS tag instead of a regiment keyword (or MILITARUM TEMPESTUS). This gives them +1Ld and the Unquestioning Loyalty ability as their regimental trait. It is common for a Genestealer Cult to thrive on industrial worlds. When the cult rises up to overthrow its oppressors, they employ all manner of improvised industrial equipment from their arsenal. Among the largest and most impressive of these is the Tectonic Fragdrill, a huge piece of mining gear often found in a Sector Mechanicus that can cause targeted earthquakes. Down to 4W from 5W, Improved save from 5+ to 4+. Sniper rifle is now Strength 5 AP3 D2, buffed from Strength 4 AP2 DD3. The only massive outlier is the Primus – unfortunately the fact that his equipment previously cost 3 ends up disastrous for him, because his base cost is increased to 80 and then 2pts added to the sword as well, for a total increase of 10pts on a unit that could comfortably have only gotten 5. He retains a powerful aura effect, but might see a slight drop in utilisation because of it.

Cult Creed – Subterranean Ambushers: In the first battle round, units with this get +1 to advance and charge rolls. After that, units that set up on the board get +1 to advances (which isn’t really relevant) and charges (which very much is) until the end of that turn. You can set up this unit anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 8" away from any enemy models. Psychic Ritual (Warpcraft): No really. Most lists are going to contain two Psykers that want to end up near the centre of the board, are reasonably tough and get a lot more of their value from other capabilities than most casters do. I genuinely think there’s a case for trying this one, and more ways to force your opponent to come party with you on your terms mid-board is good. You can also take Mental Interrogation if you’re some sort of coward. More or less, what I expected though. Seems like our codex has been streamlined significantly, but still have access to some jank. When forced to lie low for a time, the Alphus will hole up in an abandoned cellar or cave, taking the opportunity to scribe maps and charts with painstaking care as they record every observation for the later assessment of the gene-sect's leaders. It is not unheard of for hundreds of Alphus maps to grace the war room of a Nexos, each of which they and their Primus peer commit to memory for the insurrection to come.Okay, we can’t promise these dice will always succeed, but they will indicate your allegiance to the Genestealer Cults, and come complete with the faction’s icon on one face.